


Snack Break

by Schmuzz



Series: A Few Missing Links [1]
Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Like them going grocery shopping, Missing Scene, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, This movie was great but I needed more bonding scenes, so here's some that I think could have happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-17
Updated: 2018-10-17
Packaged: 2019-08-03 15:00:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16328237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schmuzz/pseuds/Schmuzz
Summary: “Do as I say and you might just survive this,” were pretty bold words from an alien who operated like an organic electric blanket and could down chocolate like it just went through the worst breakup in recorded history.





	Snack Break

**Author's Note:**

> So I saw Venom a few days ago and absolutely loved it, though I kind of felt like they were forced to cut out some potentially really amazing scenes for time or whatever - especially ones focusing on Eddie and Venom's relationship. So here's a funny bit on that. I tried to make the conversation at the beginning accurate to how it's depicted in the film, but I was referring to YouTube clips so some things may have been edited out of order or something. Sorry in advance if that's the case!
> 
> Also I might write a few more 'missing scenes', like Venom and Anne teaming up to save Eddie, and Eddie somehow reuniting with Venom again, or something. Let me know what you think!

After the… thing inside him gets them away from Drake's goons by literally swimming halfway across the bay, leaving Eddie stranded and confused and soaking wet on a little concrete island in the middle of the water, it makes an appearance.

‘It’ was like pouring viscous, black water into the air, emerging from his own back to face him. A sinister face appeared with it, looking just like the reflections he had seen in the bathroom, the car window. Eddie had abandoned the idea that this was the product of delusions _or_ a brain tumor after a minute of driving on his motorcycle, trying to outmaneuver the cars that came after him with extreme prejudice. Seeing an actual corporeal form attached to the voice in his head was almost a relief. Tangible evidence that he wasn’t crazy.

He squinted at the thing’s face, its milky eyes and many rows of needle-like teeth arranged in a grin. “What the hell are you?” he whispered.

 ** _“I am Venom, and you are mine.”_** it answered, voice so deep and guttural it was like an animal growling.

“You bit somebody’s head off.” He distinctly recalled the opening mouth, the crunch of bone, the momentary pulse of relief that broke through the constant baseline of hunger.

 ** _“Fuel in the tank,”_** it answered casually – no, _gleefully_. Eddie couldn’t manage to suppress a shiver, but maybe that was just from the freezing water soaking through every inch of his skin. Venom’s head weaved and bobbed as it spoke, its mouth moving like some freaky ventriloquist dummy from hell.

As soon as he thought that, Venom’s head tilted slightly. **_“And I know everything, Eddie.”_**

“Y-You do?” He pressed himself further into the steel structure behind him, if only to get some precious space between himself and those _teeth._

**_“Everything about you.”_ **

Maybe it was bluffing. “How?” he demanded.

 ** _“I am inside your head.”_** Maybe the answer shouldn’t have been so surprising, but Eddie couldn’t help the noise of disbelief that came out of his mouth. **_“You are a loser, Eddie.”_** The loser in question made a pair of fists with his hands, before realizing how fruitless and dangerous it was to try and get even with an intelligent alien from a superior race that was currently spooning his frontal lobe. **_“Listen carefully, Eddie,”_** Venom pressed. **_“You did not find us. We found you. Think of yourself as my ride.”_** Eddie muttered an instinctual ‘where you goin?’ as he watched Venom warily.

 ** _“We need Carlton Drake's rocket.”_** Okay, considering Venom _was_ an alien… fair enough. It’s not like he had much of a choice in the matter – or that he could survive with Drake's men coming after him on his own.

“Are you, uh, gonna eat anybody else?”

 ** _“Most likely.”_** The face was always grinning, but this time it seemed to grin _harder._

He grimaced. “Oh, God,”

**_“That is why we are here. Cooperate, and you might just survive. That is the deal.”_ **

Again, not like he had much of a choice. “Alright, deal. Now uh…” He glanced around. “You might want to get us to actual dry land.” Venom’s face moved away from Eddie for the first time during their entire conversation, looking at the surroundings himself.

 ** _“Correct,”_** it said, face disintegrating, leading back to where it had sprouted. A moment later that inky black goo was covering his entire body.

He wanted to say it felt terrifying, like he was being trapped and suffocated, but just like before it didn’t feel much of anything. A little warmer, compared to sitting out in the open dripping wet. And he could still ‘see’, in a sense, faintly feel Venom steer their body into the water, getting wet _again_ by some osmosis process or something _,_ swimming through and getting to the other side. It took maybe ten seconds, and then the skin was returning to… inside of him.

“Thanks, bud,” Eddie said dumbly.

A **_‘you’re welcome’_** resounded from inside his head. Not as startling now as the first time he had heard it.

“A man eating alien with manners, huh?” Eddie asked, mostly to himself. Walking up the bank of the strait, he placed his surroundings. They were closer to Drake's labs from this side, as well as his old job. He dug his phone out of his pocket, sighing in relief when it still turned on. And Anne said waterproof smartphones were just a dumb fad that tricked you into spending more money on the same product.

Well, she wasn’t wrong, but at least his evidence was still there. Solid proof that Drake was an evil megalomaniac bastard, proof that the homeless population had been brought in for his torturous, lethal experiments, proof that his hunch was right. And yet again, more proof that he wasn’t crazy, despite sitting in a lobster tank a few hours earlier, biting their heads off. He shoved his phone back in his pocket.

“What’s with eating live things, huh? They taste better?” The question came on suddenly. He didn’t know why he asked; he could already tell he’d hate the answer.  

 ** _‘The fresher the better,’_** Venom answered. The cryptic voice was still freaky, and yet somehow becoming normal. Humans could really adjust to anything, when you thought about it. **_‘Brains, lungs, eyes, livers –’_**

“Okay, okay, I get it.”

After another minute of walking, Eddie had moved from the isolated area next to the bridge, where there was only brown grass and litter, and was now facing the massive highway that connected the two sides of the city. It was late, but cars still sped by. Typical. There was also no way to cross unless –

Already Venom was moving him forward, forcing him to literally run into traffic, only to jump off the hood of some poor lady’s car, clearing the leap and coming out the other side unscathed. Eddie’s knees didn’t even hurt from the impact. “Oh God, this is gonna kill me.”

 ** _‘Not while we’re together.’_** It sounded like a promise.

Half a mile later Eddie made it back to an area populated with streets, and businesses, and people. There were still a few dog walkers and commuters who stayed late wandering around. **_‘A whole person could do, too.’_** Venom added, upon seeing them.

“No. No eating people."

**_‘Humans need food to survive. If you want us to survive, you’ll have to make sacrifices.’_ **

“Listen, you ate those tater tots before, okay? Why don’t we just,” Eddie jogged across the road to a relatively large 24 hour supermarket, “take a snack break, okay? See what you like that isn’t fucking soylent green, Jesus.”

The automatic doors parted for them – him – whatever. There were two cashiers on one side of the store, talking to each other, and another lone shopper that he could see eyeing up the bread selection. He made a beeline for the frozen section, grabbing a shopping basket on the way.

“Okay, tater tots,” he opened a freezer door and shoved a few bags in. “What else… ice cream?”

‘ ** _Flesh.’_**

“Not right now! Work with me here. I’m sure once we corner Drake you can probably eat him. He deserves it. Can you eat dairy? You could probably eat a cow…” He wandered further down the aisles, stopping in one that had a variety of snacks on the shelves. Tater tots weren’t healthy. Maybe Venom was like a college student who could somehow sustain itself on junk food alone. “Maybe you can eat potato chips, too.” He didn’t know. Maybe they could actually go over to the fish section and grab another live lobster if nothing else worked. But that would mean giving in to the symbiote’s demands and -

He heard the sound of bags and boxes being noisily opened. Crunching. Chewing. He spun around. Venom had partially manifested himself again, and was methodically going through the rows of snacks, downing pretzels and Doritos like no tomorrow.

“Hey!” Eddie whispered. “Stop that!”

 ** _‘You were taking too long.’_** It didn’t bother to speak in the traditional way, too occupied over chewing up an entire bag of Bugles.

“I have to pay for that!’

 ** _‘I’m just browsing…’_** Venom jerked towards the candy section, and Eddie stumbled after him – it. Whatever.

“If those cashiers see you doing this, they’re gonna freak out, call the police, then we’ll have to deal with them, _and_ –” His speech stuttered to a halt. He felt… different. Since Venom got inside him, he had been privy to some of the other’s desires. Like the urge to eat the rotten remains of a rotisserie chicken in his garbage. He had also gotten used to feeling hungry, ravenous, all the time, though he still wasn’t hungry enough to want to eat people, like his parasite friend. Despite the ‘fuel in the tank’, as Venom described it, Eddie still felt like they were running on empty.

But this time, he actually felt a sense of momentary satisfaction, combined with the blinding desire for _more._

 ** _‘What is this?’_** Venom’s thin, tentacle-like appendages held up the remains of a Hershey’s bar.

“Uh. Chocolate.”

 ** _‘Mm…’_** Venom turned, downing the rest of the shelf, wrappers and all, into his cavernous maw. Another wave of satisfaction went through him – them. Their shared… body. He vaguely wondered if the chocolate was going to get burned off by all the energy Venom had to be expending, or if Eddie was going to come out of this whole experience with an extra ten pounds.

“Was that good, buddy?” Eddie asked carefully, once Venom had picked most of the chocolate section clean.

**_‘Delicious. What is that made out of?’_ **

“Uh, a bunch of stuff. Sugar, milk, cacao nuts... It’s all, uh. ‘Dead’. No meat in it at all, actually.”

 ** _‘Interesting.’_** Now that Venom wasn’t starving, his voice shifted to more of a purr. **_‘We’ll have to remember that.’_** Venom’s head drifted back into Eddie, slick and gel-like as it pressed against him for a moment before melding back in completely.

Eddie put the tater tots back and bought one of those premade Starbucks drinks instead. He couldn’t look either cashier in the eye.

Getting back outside, he cracked open the top and started drinking. He probably didn’t need the caffeine, but he was getting fucking old, okay? And adrenaline couldn’t last forever.

“Okay, we got you fed, you’re happy, they didn’t call the cops on us. We’re good.”

 ** _‘Drake's rocket,’_** Venom reminded him.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re getting there. I don’t exactly have a car on me.”

**_‘We can run.’_ **

“It’s like… twelve miles from here.”

**_‘Exactly.’_ **

“God, okay, fine. We can run. Let me finish my drink first.” Eddie took a sip – whatever syrup they put in the coffee to make it last stuck to his tongue unpleasantly, but actually drinking something was nice. He was probably super dehydrated right now, actually. “How do you even know where his launch pad is?”

 ** _‘You do, so I know. Together.’_** Ah, yes, the ‘in your head forever’ thing. Right. How could he forget? His mind trailed back to that first conversation, not that it happened more than an hour ago anyway. He also dimly remembered he was still dripping wet. This time, he didn’t have to voice his thoughts before Venom responded. **_‘You need heat to survive. I’m keeping you warm.’_** Eddie felt those black tentacles rising briefly from his skin, making lumps in his clothes as Venom shifted around, showing what was going on under his skin. It was gross and almost heartwarming, at the same time. Or maybe Venom was currently wrapped around his heart, too.

“Yeah, uh, I see that. Thanks. That’s very, uh, considerate.”

 ** _‘We can’t exist without a host. Just like you can’t survive Drake alone. Together,’_** he reiterated.

“Not that I’m not grateful for the help but uh. Why me, exactly? If you wanted to get to Drake , couldn’t you have just bonded with one of his security guys?” The image of him laying broken and half dead after the car ran into him, Venom jumping onto that bald prick that seemed to be running things, and leaving Eddie to die on the pavement crossed his mind. He shivered.

**_‘Most of us use our hosts. Control them until there’s nothing left, and move on.’_ **

“Comforting.”

**_‘We can be more if we cooperate. A powerful host to bond with is better than a thousand temporary ones.’_ **

“And me being a loser means we’re getting cozy in here?” He tapped his temple just as a woman passed him on the sidewalk, giving him a wary side eye. She picked up her pace. Whatever, he didn’t live in this part of downtown, anyway.

**_‘If that’s how you want to see it.’_ **

Alright. “So when you said ‘most of us’, as in more than one of you, and earlier, when you said eating people is why ‘we’ are here, and that you guys found _us_ … There’s more of you, isn’t there. Like, in space, or something?”

**_‘Millions.’_ **

“Ah, okay, I see.”

**_‘The four of us were scouting this planet to see how habitable it is for the rest of our species.’_ **

“So, what. You want to go to the rocket so you can tell the rest of your friends that there’s an all you can eat buffet down here?” His heart raced at the thought. Like Venom said, he was his ride. And without Venom, he'd most likely die at the hands of the various men Drake sent to track them down. Moreover, he doubted he could win in a battle of the mind against Venom, and - despite the head eating from before - he wasn't being terrible to him, really. A bit condescending, but he got worse from Mrs. Chen.

 ** _‘Yes.’_** Venom answered, so matter of factly. Like breathing. Or eating human brains. **_‘I wouldn’t worry too much about it,’_** he said, as though trying to soothe the thought away.

“Why, because I won’t live to see it or some shit?”

**_‘That is a possibility. But I’m quite… comfortable here. If you’re still around, I’ll keep you safe from the rest of them.’_ **

“Oh great, wearing you like an alien goo condom for the rest of my life. That’s the dream, right there.” He heard the new and distinct sound of Venom laughing from inside his head. “Please tell me you’ll at least kill Drake for me. Or rip his dick off, or something. God, that asshole makes me angry.”

There was a pause. **_‘…We let ourselves be taken to Earth,’_** he said, **_‘but the tests were difficult. No strong hosts. They were all too scared and weak to bond with completely. The other two may be dead by now.’_**

“Drake being a dick to humans and aliens? Can’t say I’m surprised.”

**_‘I, too, wouldn’t mind ripping his dick off, as you say.’_ **

“Glad we’re on the same page,” Eddie said dryly. He took another sip of the awful tasting chemical coffee as they picked their way down the long avenue. “Wait. Didn’t you say there were four of you?”

**_‘Riot may still be out there. Somewhere. But for now, it is just us.’_ **

“Oh.” Eddie finished his drink, tossing it in a nearby garbage can. “Uh, sorry for your loss.”

**_‘We weren’t particularly close.’_ **

“Work buddies?” Eddie joked. His phone buzzed in his pocket, he frowned as he looked at it, seeing Anne’s picture come up.

 ** _‘Answer it,’_** Venom prodded.

“I am, jeez.” Anne’s voice on the other end was frantic, saying something about Dan’s diagnosis, but Eddie had to cut her off. He was sure whatever came back on the MRI scan looked terrifying, and… the reality of it was also terrifying, but Venom was nothing if not practical, it seemed. As long as they had this lovely codependent relationship thing going on, Venom would keep him safe. He reluctantly hung up on her as his eyes tracked up the familiar building that marked his workplace six months ago. “Okay, I know we’re on a time crunch, but do you mind?” He waved his phone in the air languidly.

 ** _‘Go ahead, I’m not completely unreasonable.’_** Eddie didn’t want to admit it, but actually, Venom did seem open to some stretches of logic and consideration. Even if they were just a means to an end. Though… this excursion wasn’t getting food. This was something just for Eddie. Even if he didn’t make it, his boss would have the proof. He could die happy enough knowing that he was vindicated, in the end. That was the sort of egotistical, self-absorbed asshole he was, as Anne had once said to him.

“Thanks,” Eddie said, pushing open the doors of what used to be his old home, his old life. A million years ago. And who knew? This moment, with Venom inside him, barely perceptible besides a comforting weight in his abdomen and the back of his head, almost peaceful, could soon feel a million years away from wherever he was going to end up.


End file.
